I love an open kitchen. I feel like the kitchen is the center of the house. It's where people gather and life happens. Our little hundred year old bungalow came with a kitchen that was narrow and closed off. We actually knocked out a bedroom and a load-bearing wall to create a giant, open kitchen. Losing a bedroom probably wasn't great for resale value of the house, but we aren't going anywhere, so it suits us just fine.
It would be fun to pick out new, modern finishes and doodads for a kitchen. I would love a shelf with vertical slots for baking sheets, slow-close drawers, a pull-out spice rack, maybe a big farm skink. Let us know what kind of things you go with.
it's hard picking anything as we are still in lockdown and all design sessions are online. I would love to be able to go in show rooms.
I am in two minds about open plan. We had it in our old place for 14 years and it was great when our son was small but on the down side
food smell lingers in the living area
noise in the kitchen - dishwasher, food processor, coffee machine, even fridge sometimes make humming noise and if one of us is watching tv, the other one want's smoothie both are not comfortable doing it
but I don't want to spend thousands of euro and find that even after the changes the room is still dark.
My brother and his wife have a sink on their island and they absolutely love it. It's on the island right across from the stove so they used it all the time for filling and emptying pots.
This looks like a really good use of space. I like the long stretch of cabinets on the sink side with everything that's "closed" on the right.
I don't love the colors on this one though. What about this in the dark grey? with the island black and the counters the marble colour from the first one?
With that set up your kitchen sink is already so close to the stove that I personally don't think I'd put a sink in the island too. A sink in the island would take away from the useable counter space on the island.
If I understand "hob" correctly, it's like a little elevated ledge on the back of the island correct??
There wouldn't be two sinks, I don't think the kitchen designer have listened to what I said. That window they have at the sink is actually facing my neighbors wall, there is limited amount of light coming in and no view at all, as there is tiny space between the two houses.
On top of this there is gas boiler that we can't figure out where to move and needs to be hidden in one of the upper cabinets, meaning there is no space for both sink and hob/stove and one has to be moved to the island
gas broiler is a oven separate from the stove?
The wall where both designs have the big glass doors, does that go to your back yard? Is there a reason they aren't putting the window and sink there? What's in the room beside the kitchen?
Your kitchen looks much larger than ours, but here is an idea for layout that we came up with for our future kitchen reno.
The sink and window are on the wall that faces the back yard (currently our sink and kitchen window face the neighbour's yard and I HATE it!). Our plan is a U-shape so ignore that.
Basically what I'm saying is if it was me, I'd take the designs that your contractors suggested and rotate it so that the set of cabinets with the sink is on the wall where that big glass door currently is and then put the wall of fridge stove etc where they currently have the countertop that has the sink in it. I'm not sure if there are reasons/limitations to you doing that or not.
What direction does that wall with the large glass panels face?
We currently have a big glass sliding door where your plans have the large windows. We hate it lol. But that wall is south facing for us so it gets the sun all day every day that the sun is out. It gets really warm and things in our pantry melt from the heat of the sun.
north west. Living in Ireland, we don't get that many sunny days anyway and this specific room is the darkest in the house. It will get direct sunlight only for short time summer evenings
Layout only so it's either hob/stove in the island. Down side the hide in extractor fans aren't that strong. Or it's sink in the middle.
Engineer will come next week
Skwigg, sorry for taking the forum in the kitchen design direction. Please let me know if you feel this doesn't belong here. I thought many here as you and I love cooking, and the main goal for the kitchen is convenience when cooking
No, I love this! It's putting the Fun forum to good use. I think I'd rather have the sink in the island because it's handy for prep work, like chopping vegetables and having a garbage disposal right there. I agree about the hidden fan too. I'd rather have a real fan on a wall.
Of those two options, I like the sink in the island too for all the reasons @skwigg mentions.
It's going to look amazing. Please take pictures of your kitchen before and after the reno!
I love house design stuff. This has been a fun discussion! Thanks for allowing it @skwigg
I love an open kitchen. I feel like the kitchen is the center of the house. It's where people gather and life happens. Our little hundred year old bungalow came with a kitchen that was narrow and closed off. We actually knocked out a bedroom and a load-bearing wall to create a giant, open kitchen. Losing a bedroom probably wasn't great for resale value of the house, but we aren't going anywhere, so it suits us just fine.
It would be fun to pick out new, modern finishes and doodads for a kitchen. I would love a shelf with vertical slots for baking sheets, slow-close drawers, a pull-out spice rack, maybe a big farm skink. Let us know what kind of things you go with.
it's hard picking anything as we are still in lockdown and all design sessions are online. I would love to be able to go in show rooms.
I am in two minds about open plan. We had it in our old place for 14 years and it was great when our son was small but on the down side
food smell lingers in the living area
noise in the kitchen - dishwasher, food processor, coffee machine, even fridge sometimes make humming noise and if one of us is watching tv, the other one want's smoothie both are not comfortable doing it
but I don't want to spend thousands of euro and find that even after the changes the room is still dark.
I am trying to decide for plain modern cabinet doors like this
or this
or more traditional shaker style like this
I don't window cabinets I don't want glossy
The layout will have to be L shape plus island
I don't want such overpowering look for the extractor fan
I love the look of dark kitchen but not sure if I am brave enough and it's north west facing room
I love that blue minimalist or white traditional. White minimalist would be fun too. If you can do anything, starting must be really overwhelming.
sink on the island vs hob on the island?
the current dilemma
My brother and his wife have a sink on their island and they absolutely love it. It's on the island right across from the stove so they used it all the time for filling and emptying pots.
I really like this one, except for that bank of brown cabinets over the stove. Why did they do that? I'd do grey cabinets right through.
This looks like a really good use of space. I like the long stretch of cabinets on the sink side with everything that's "closed" on the right. I don't love the colors on this one though. What about this in the dark grey? with the island black and the counters the marble colour from the first one?
This is what the two companies I contacted have given me, and I am really not feeling the love yet.
With that set up your kitchen sink is already so close to the stove that I personally don't think I'd put a sink in the island too. A sink in the island would take away from the useable counter space on the island. If I understand "hob" correctly, it's like a little elevated ledge on the back of the island correct??
oh no wait, is a hob a stove?? What is a hob lol?
I am pretty sure hob is stove in US:)
There wouldn't be two sinks, I don't think the kitchen designer have listened to what I said. That window they have at the sink is actually facing my neighbors wall, there is limited amount of light coming in and no view at all, as there is tiny space between the two houses.
On top of this there is gas boiler that we can't figure out where to move and needs to be hidden in one of the upper cabinets, meaning there is no space for both sink and hob/stove and one has to be moved to the island
gas broiler is a oven separate from the stove? The wall where both designs have the big glass doors, does that go to your back yard? Is there a reason they aren't putting the window and sink there? What's in the room beside the kitchen?
Your kitchen looks much larger than ours, but here is an idea for layout that we came up with for our future kitchen reno. The sink and window are on the wall that faces the back yard (currently our sink and kitchen window face the neighbour's yard and I HATE it!). Our plan is a U-shape so ignore that. Basically what I'm saying is if it was me, I'd take the designs that your contractors suggested and rotate it so that the set of cabinets with the sink is on the wall where that big glass door currently is and then put the wall of fridge stove etc where they currently have the countertop that has the sink in it. I'm not sure if there are reasons/limitations to you doing that or not.
The biggest issue in our kitchen is light and as such, I thought that the best option is to have the extrarnal wall all floor to ceiling windows
What direction does that wall with the large glass panels face? We currently have a big glass sliding door where your plans have the large windows. We hate it lol. But that wall is south facing for us so it gets the sun all day every day that the sun is out. It gets really warm and things in our pantry melt from the heat of the sun.
north west. Living in Ireland, we don't get that many sunny days anyway and this specific room is the darkest in the house. It will get direct sunlight only for short time summer evenings
Layout only so it's either hob/stove in the island. Down side the hide in extractor fans aren't that strong. Or it's sink in the middle.
Engineer will come next week Skwigg, sorry for taking the forum in the kitchen design direction. Please let me know if you feel this doesn't belong here. I thought many here as you and I love cooking, and the main goal for the kitchen is convenience when cooking
No, I love this! It's putting the Fun forum to good use. I think I'd rather have the sink in the island because it's handy for prep work, like chopping vegetables and having a garbage disposal right there. I agree about the hidden fan too. I'd rather have a real fan on a wall.
I love fish, but lingering mackerel stink is not a good thing!
Of those two options, I like the sink in the island too for all the reasons @skwigg mentions. It's going to look amazing. Please take pictures of your kitchen before and after the reno! I love house design stuff. This has been a fun discussion! Thanks for allowing it @skwigg